SUVA DECLARATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The Third Pacific Islands Development Forum Summit of Leaders (PIDF 3) that ended in Suva last Friday 4th September 2015 has approved a Suva Deceleration on Climate Change.
Speaking on the Declaration at the closure of PIDF 3, the Prime Minister of Fiji the Honorable Josaia V Bainimarama said,
“We go from here to Paris with a clear signal – in our Suva Declaration on Climate Change – of our determination to finally get the world community to act.”
“As the declaration says, we are gravely distressed at the threat that climate change poses to our existence. We express profound concern that while the scientific evidence is overwhelming, not nearly enough is being done to prevent the world from warming further and increasing the danger to our way of life. And in some cases, our very existence.”
“Our disappointment and frustration at the world’s failure to act runs through this entire document. We in the Pacific tend to speak softly. It is in our nature. But on this issue, we needed to cry out with one voice, enough is enough. And we have. And it is all the more powerful for that.”
“The Suva Declaration is destined to be an historic document of an historic moment in which the Pacific came together as one. And it caps a week in which successive speakers have warned of the extreme gravity of the challenge we face.”
Leaders of the Pacific will use this as a basis to garner support at key meetings such as UN meeting on sustainable development, Commonwealth Heads of Government, UNFCCC ADP meetings and stronger international action at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) to be held in Paris in December